Austrian Arena

For the second year running I pleased to say that we’ve flown 6 out of 6 days in Bassano. We tried attempting a 57km triangle today but a slightly stronger than forecast east wind along the ridge cut that short to only a 40k triangle! Pretty good for October I think.

This was the last day of the season’s guiding for me and I’d like to say a big thank you to all who have supported our service over the years. I hope to see you again for our 8th season next year.

The weather is looking perfect for flying on the main ridge the next few days back in Mayrhofen so hopefully I’ll get some nice photos and memories to last me through the dark & damp Autumn months.

The dates for 2009 will be online by the end of the month.

Signing out for now
Kelly Farina

Just checked the weather forecast for Bassano and it’s looking highly possible that we are in danger of yet again achieving 6/6 flyable days here.

Today was nice with a 40k task set and most of the boys got a good way round until stability in the flats forced us down near Asolo. Colin and Adam managed to hang on to a small, weak thermal to make it back to the LZ in great style. As it was obvious that pushing on would just mean a longer retrieve.

Good effort to all the lads and especially Dave Hague who has relatively low airtime compered to the rest. Keeping up and pushing on in great style, the guy will be one to watch in the future. You read it here first, nice one

The day dawn crystal blue after the norh foehn of yesterday, expecting lots of traffic on the south launch we went to the east launch and found good wind. I started first and spun up to 1300m after a bit of searching then crossed to the main mountain. Colin, Adam and Dave followed and we had an easy ride to the first turnpoint, as conditions were so good we flew another few kms towards the Pieave valley and the next clouds.

Again we had a great line back to launch and climbed to base and pushed out to flats to try and complete the 50km task I’d set. Conditions were a little more stable in the flats with an inversion at 600m. After a hard fight I got a low save with my pod harness open and managed to get back to the LZ. Colin was a little impatient and landed here.

The hero of the day was Dave who avoided getting low and managed to get to Asolo and almost all the way back to landing field, 45km and a fanatastic effort. The week has a good forecast and hopefully everyone will make some memorable flights.

Low cloud base and strong high level winds meant that we had to stay local just around launch and Belvedere. Climbs to 2600m where the wind was more noticeable  and a little more turbulent. The wind picked up in the valley to around 30k and everyone had a nice boat about and landed safely.